The Early history of general anesthesia - Dr.Duane Stillions

The Early history of general anesthesia Dr. Duane Stillions is a successful anesthesiologist with more than a decade of experience. Although modern anesthesia contains many innovative technologies discovered only in recent years, anesthesia itself is an ancient field practiced by many cultures across the world. Some of the earliest reports of general anesthesia come from Mesopotamia more than 5,000 years ago. For the Sumerian and Babylonian cultures, the opium poppy was a readily accessible source of anesthesia. Evidence from clay tablets indicates that early Mesopotamian cultures knew about the euphoric effects of ingested opium and spread this knowledge to the Persian and Egyptian cultures. Although the ancient Egyptians did possess surgical instruments and several painkillers and sedatives, there is no firm evidence that they knew about opium specifically. Before Arab traders introduced India and China to opium in the 700s C.E., both cultures used aconitum, commonly called wolfsbane or monkshood, and incense made from cannabis as anesthesia. Chinese history contains numerous references to the surgeon Hua Tuo, who used an herbal remedy he named “mafeisan” to induce unconscious states. Although the exact recipe remains unknown, modern scholars speculate that it may have contained some combination of aconitum strains, jasmine roots, and rhododendron flowers. Although Ramon Llull is often credited with discovering diethyl ether in 1275 and many knew about its pain-reducing properties, the first surgery performed with the ether anesthesia did not occur until 1846, when Dr. William T. G. Morton completed a public dental extraction in Boston. Dr. Morton remarked on the effectiveness of the anesthesia and the patient’s lack of response to the procedure. Many doctors during this time also used ether in conjunction with opium and morphine, a refined form of the opium poppy. One year later, Scottish physician James Young Simpson used chloroform as a form of general anesthesia. The medicine, which proved particularly effective, became a highly sought-after commodity in Europe during the early 1900s. However, its tendency to induce heart and liver damage caused it to fall out of favor with surgeons in Europe and the United States.